My Poem (A purpose, a way of life, a ray of hope)

Stitches;

One complete movement of a threaded needle through a fabric or material,

A sense of wholeness in a place that feels broken,

Healing; full of love,

A lifeline,

A purpose, a way of life, a ray of hope,

Stitches, leave scars and heal with time.

12 Days of Christmas (gymnastics style)

On the first day of Christmas, my mean coach yelled at me, no you may not go pee.

On the second day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, two hundred pushups, and would not let me go pee.

On the third day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and would not let me go pee.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and he still woud not let me pee.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and i still really had to pee.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, six  bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and i really had to go pee.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and he still say you cannot pee.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, eight yurchenkos flipping, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and i was still not allowed to pee.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, nine gymnasts leaping, eight yurchenkos flipping, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and he would not let me pee.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, ten muscles pulling, nine gymnasts leaping, eight yurchenkos flipping, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and i still wasn't allowed to pee.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me, eleven giants spinning, ten muscles pulling, nine gymnasts leaping, eight yurchenkos flipping, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and still wouldn't let me pee.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my mean coach gave to me. twelve gold medals, eleven giants spinning, ten muscles pulling, nine gymnasts leaping, eight yurchenkos flipping, seven sweaty leos, six bones a breaking, five beam routines, four tumbling passes, three screaming children, two hundred pushups, and he finally let me pee.

CHRISTMAS!

One year for christmas, I wanted several things, I mean as kids don't we all have millions of things on our lists and probably get like four or five of them at the most? Well, I told my mother that I wasn't gonna tell her what I wanted because Santa was gonna get it for me, well this was when I was about 12 years old and yeah I pretty much knew already that Santa Claus couldn't be real, but I still wanted to believe it ya know? Well anyways, I got a present that year that I will never ever forget, I told them to get me something good, but I wasn't gonna tell them what that might be so they would just have to figure it out. Well, my parents probably got me what i thought at the time was the coolest present ever. On Christmas morning I came to the tree with my mommy and daddy and little sister Kate who was at the time about 6. Well Kate got this cool little fake computer thing to play games on (her big present) and I had opened what had appeared to be all of mine, and didn't have a big present this year. I was bummed to say the least I mean when you are twelve years old, your super excited about Christmas, and opening your presents. Afterwards, I just sat there while Kate was playing with her new toys, wondering what I had done to not get a major present this year. A little while later my mom said "Sarah come here." I said okay and walked to her. My dad jumped out and covered my eyes, and walked me down the stairs, and into the playroom. He counted to three and uncovered my eyes. Sitting in the middle of my playroom floor, was a balance beam that my dad had stayed up all night christmas night and many weeks before building for me. I was so excited, I GOT A BALANCE BEAM, and even though that was already pretty great next to it was two mats, they had also gotten me! I was extremely excited, and felt guilty about wanting them to get me a real present! But I was just a kid, I didnt know that was down there. So for the rest of Christmas day, me and my little sister held imaginary gymnastics competitions in my basement, pretending first me being the gymnast and her the judge, then flipflopping positions. It was a ton of fun and to this day I still have the balance beam in playroom, in my basement, at home.

Random things my team and I do and say at gymnastics practice:

1.       I do not feel well enough to be doing that today coach; please don’t make me do it?

2.       Coach, can I skip the balance beam today, I’m dizzy? Did you just say the D word?

3.       I am to hyper to participate.

4.       You know what we should do today at practice, practice in our Halloween costumes!

5.       Young gymnast: May we run? Coach: Yes! Older Gymnast: Okay, sit down and do not move.

6.       My hand is bleeding under the skin, look how cool this is, it moves!

7.       I do believe that all gymnasts are weird.

8.       Laugh hysterically when we break a bone, or in a lot of pain!

9.       Eat chalk.

10.   Sweat a lot, then lie on the mats and leave body prints.

11.   Have fun together making up funny floor routines, to random music!

12.   Torment Coach Josh (: [BEST ONE]

13.   Hey coach can I go take my meds?

14.   Me: It’s like two hundred degrees in here! Coach: Actually it’s not its, 60 and I’m freezing!

15.   They lied to me they told me that Giants were jolly and green, not scary!

16.   O my gosh, look at my leg its already bruising! COOL!

17.   Why didn’t I get a bruise, no fair!

18.   I forget my routine: /

19.   I really could use some sticky buns right now! (glue that stops your leotard from riding up)

20.   All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, as long as I’m laughing with MO!

Frustrations

Last night at gymnastics practice I became very frustrated. To the point of tears and I have not been to that point in forever but last night it was just too much to bear. After coming back from my surgery and time off I have had a little bit of a hard time getting back into doing some of my skills. Last night I could not for the life of me do a full twist. Well this really got to me, not because no I cannot do the skill. Because yes it is a hard skill to do, but the part that got me was this is a skill I have been doing since I was about eleven years old and I have been competing since I was thirteen, and what all of a sudden I do not remember how to do it. That frustrates me a little bit, well okay I’m lying that frustrates me a lot. I tried really hard to not let it get to me, but I finally got to the point where I just lost it, which is never good because it throws off your whole night at practice. I finally got it back into gear and continued tumbling, no I never actually got that skill completed last night but I was able to get myself into check so that I could complete other tumbling passes and work on my floor routine. In gymnastics sometimes you just have those days when you are off and cannot do something, and I just think sometimes its better to move on and not dwell on that for the rest of practice.

Being Exhausted.

You know that feeling where everything is beginning to slow down, and you just do not think that there is any possible way that you have enough energy to get everything done? Well welcome to my life, ha-ha. Often times I am up to all hours of the night trying to complete the homework that I get from my various honors and AP classes, but I probably wouldn’t be if it didn’t have to do with the fact that I am so devoted to gymnastics. I have gymnastics practice three to four days a week depending on the time of year. These practices last from directly after school putting me home around 7:45 or 8, almost every school night a week. I get to the point where exhaustion takes over and I just cannot do anything else. This weekend was a great example of how I can be exhausted and still have things to do. On Thursday I had school and had a lot of homework but thank goodness it wasn’t due until Monday right? Well I mean that’s kinda what I was thinking, but it ended up back firing. I had gymnastics Thursday night and decided I would do the Thursday homework over the weekend, well I had a church retreat this weekend and we left at 4:30 after school on Friday and got home on Sunday at 4. I thought that I would have plenty of time, but when I got home I was so exhausted from staying up late and doing back to back activity at the retreat. I ended up staying up till 11 doing homework last night when I needed to be in bed probably honestly closer to 9. Sometimes I wonder when my body is just going to say that is enough Sarah, STOP and TAKE A BREAK! But so far it just hasn’t really happened, so I guess until it does I am going to continue doing gymnastics like I do, and love!

Inside competitors

Sometimes the worst competitors are the ones on you team. The people that make you the maddest and the most competitive may be from people that you see every other day. But for me it's just a little bit different, see my gym is split into two different sections, one in henderson and one in madisonville. The only gymnast at either of the gym that is any where near my level is a 14 year old named Logan. She is one level behind me but her coach often pits us against one another. She often is quite hateful. I find sometimes the hardest competition to deal with is the one that is in your own gym system. I feel as if they should be focused more on beating other teams then beating a person on their own team.